It feels so good to be outdoors! Our long winters make us truly appreciate the arrival of warm weather and foliage.
Several nights ago we experienced thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. I had been out the day before surveying the growth of emerging plants around our home and was astounded to see that wildflowers and ferns in our flower beds had shot up by more than a foot after the rain! Donning a long-sleeved shirt, overhauls, hat, gloves, and my Wellies, I headed into the woods in search of morels…those obscure delicacies that appear briefly when the earth is moist and the temperature is “just right”. Over the past several years, I had always returned home empty handed and disappointed, but this year I lucked out. I’m sure I could have found more had I had the stamina and fortitude to traverse the hills and valleys of our forest while fending off ticks, gnats, and other flying insects and avoiding poison ivy and fallen branches that one can easily trip over. Good grief…morel hunting is darn hard work! I was almost ready to give up when I glanced to my left. Eureka! There under a dead Elm poking up between a multitude of fallen leaves carpeting the forest floor were several dozen morels! The hours spent foraging proved fruitful indeed! What’s for dinner tonight? We will crack open a bottle of Petite Shiraz and dine on pasta tossed in basil pesto with thin strips of steak topped with asparagus tips and a mound of buttery-rich sautéed morels. Life is so good!
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